Repeating-check for music-sheets of mechanical musical instruments



(No Model.)

J. CRANNELL.

REPEATING CHECK FOE MUSIC SHEETS OI MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

No. 379,887. Patented Mar. 20, 1888.

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UNITED STATES ATENT QFFICE.

JESSE CRANNELL, OF TROY, NEW YORK.

REPEATlNG-CHECK FOR MUSIC -SHEETS 0F MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS- SPECIPICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 379,887, dated March 20, 1888.

Application filed October 8, 1887. Serial No. 251,830.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JEssE CRANNELL, residing at Troy, in the county of Rensselaer and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Repeating-Checks for Music-Sheets of Mechanical Musical Instruments, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of two of the repeatingchecks, the first having two check-bars and the second having a single check-bar; and Fig. 2 is a perspective showing a perforated musicsheet partly wound upon a roller to which the repeating-check is applied.

In a mechanical musical instrument which is operated by means of aperforated music-sheet the music-sheet is Wound from a delivery-roll onto atake-up rol1er,and then rewound from the takeup roller onto its spool or delivery-roller. It is often the case that the music sheet or strip is sufficiently long to contain several tunes, and to commence playing at the beginning of any tune, except the first on the sheet, it is necessary to first wind that part of the sheet which precedes the tune onto the take-up roller. The desired tune is then played. If it is then desired to rewind this tune quickly to repeat it, the operator is liable to rewind more of the sheet than that which contains the tune, and thus render it difficult to adjust the sheet again to commence at the beginning of the proper tune. To avoid this difficulty I use a clamp to prevent thesheet from unwinding farther than the beginning of the desired tune. This clamp I call a repeating-check, which may he made and applied in different ways to the roller and sheet to prevent the sheet unwinding from the roll beyond a pre determined and adjusted limit.

The gist of the invention is the application of a clamp or stop to the music-roll at the beginning of a tune or passage to be repeated,so that the roll cannot be unwound beyond such check unless it is removed.

A simple and cheap form of my repeatingcheck is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of a ring of thin spring material open at one side, and having at one or both ends a bar at right angles to the plane of the rin The ring being (No model.)

open at one side and being made of thin and very flexible spring material, can be easily applied to rolls differing in diameter, or the music-roll having more or less of the musicsheet wound upon it, as D, in Fig. 2, in which arepresents the spring-ring and e the clampbar. The bar 6 is made long enough to pre vent the sheet from tearing if subjected to a sudden jerk when checking the rewind. Two bars, I) and 6, may be used, if desired. as represented in the first example, A, of Fig. 1.

In constructing this repeating-check I either stamp out from a single piece of spring material the entire device, the spring and bar being in one piece, and then bend the spring to shape, or I make the spring and bar sepa- I rately and attach them together.

This check can be used either on the delivery-roll or on the take-up roll, as the case may require. WVhen used on the delivery-roll, its object is to limit the playing at a desired place to stop, and if used on the take-up roll it is to limit the rewind at a desired place in the music-sheet. That portion of the sheet which is not clamped to the roller by the ring is Wound onto the roller outside the ring and bar. The material of the ring and bar being very thin, however, does not materially disturb the regular winding of the roll of music.

What I claim as my invention is l. The combination, with the music-sheet roller of a mechanical musical instrument and a music-sheet therefor, of an adjustable check applied to the roll to prevent the music-sheet from unwinding beyond a limit determined by the adjustment of the check.

' 2. A check consisting of a ring of elastic material, as (1, having aclamping-bar, as e, for application to a mechanical music sheet roll, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

3. A check consisting of a ring of elastic material, as a, and having two clamping-bars, as e and b, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JESSE CRANNELL.

Witnesses:

J OHN P. ALBERTSON, SAMUEL P. lVIOCLELLAN. 

